Boosting Hepatitis B Vaccination Rates Among Healthcare Workers in the State of Minnesota

Hepatitis B is a severe liver infection caused by the Hepatitis B virus (HBV), potentially leading to liver cirrhosis, failure, and carcinoma. Transmission occurs through contact with infected bodily fluids, such as blood. Immunization against HBV is the most effective measure to prevent infection. Healthcare employees, particularly those who are under-vaccinated, are at elevated risk due to potential exposure. Although healthcare workers should have access, 24% of the healthcare workforce worldwide remains unvaccinated. Ensuring adequate immunization for this group is essential to maintaining a safe workplace and minimizing the risk of downstream transmission. We aimed to decrease the number of overdue Hepatitis B vaccinations among employees and dependent patients in an Internal Medicine (IM) practice at a large academic medical center At baseline, 3,052 IM patients were under-vaccinated. Our intervention identified 1,000 random patients. An EMR message was sent to the intervention group. The message provided instructions on scheduling an appointment or retrieving documentation from their occupational health records. Four weeks after the initial message, a follow-up message was sent as a reminder. The intervention resulted in a 14% increase in HepB medical record compliance updates. 780 patients interacted at least once with message broadcasts. Our intervention significantly increased Hepatitis B vaccination and documentation for patients within the intervention group. This study identified several barriers, such as a lack of willingness to receive recommended vaccines or update records to reflect accurate vaccination status. Additionally, limitations in record retrieval and difficulties pulling vaccination records from external databases hindered documentation.